My ten year old twice exceptional son is really interested in learning about sociology, psychology, how the differences in the brain cause certain behavior, and how certain conditions can have similar symptoms.
In a Sparknotes sociology textbook he read online and also a Wikipedia article, he particularly enjoyed reading about dramaturgical theory. He immediately thought of Shakespeare's "All the world's a stage and all the men and women merely players, they have their exits and their entrances: and one man in his time plays many parts."
When we read that in a dramaturgical model, social interaction is analyzed as if it were part of a theatrical performance and that people are actors who must convey their personal characteristics and their intentions to others through performances, he totally understood this, as well as impression management, and front stage and back stage behavior, and about not breaking character unless you are backstage. These were things he learned in musical theater and tried to apply in real life already, but here it was in a textbook with terms to describe it.
He rarely had meltdowns in public after the age of 5, and I think it might have been because he got the "All the Worlds a Stage" thing even at age 5. He and his musical theater class studied Shakespeare when he was five. He was always aware that other people watched him, mostly because he was so little but talked more like an adult, but sometimes when he was very excited his sensory issues got the best of him and he did this thing with his hands like he was shaking water off of them when there was no water, although at five he did spend lots of time washing his hands. He once told his doctor that it was like he felt so much energy that he had to do something with it. It didn't bother him when people watched him because he looked at it like if they were going to watch him, he would just try to put on a good show, usually by doing or saying something to make them laugh. So this was great for him but it was difficult for me since I had social anxiety issues. I was always a very shy "backstage" kind of person, and when people were looking at him, they were also looking at me and it made me nervous.
